Abstract

This paper examines the impact of property inheritance rights on human capital investment of women. To address the endogeneity of inheritance rights, I use plausibly exogenous variation created by amendments to female inheritance laws in India. I find that exposure to improved inheritance rights increased mean female educational attainment by 0.5 to 1.3 years. I also provide some suggestive, though not conclusive, evidence that the mechanism behind such an effect may be explained by the complementarity between female inheritance rights and education in the context of property management rather than by a relaxation in the household budget constraint following reduction in dowry payments at the time of marriage.